By Richard Smith, who came to Concord in 1998 because of his love for the Concord Authors and Concord history. He can usually be seen around Concord doing Living History as Henry Thoreau, especially at Walden Pond. He is married and his wife, Beth, is also an historian in Concord.

"Endowed by Nature with tender sensibilities...."

Helen Thoreau. Photo courtesy of the Concord Free Public Library's Special Collections

Helen Louisa Thoreau was the eldest of four children born to John and Cynthia Thoreau in Concord, Massachusetts. In fact, when her parents married as a young couple on May 11, 1812, Cynthia was already 5 months pregnant with her first child. Helen was born on October 22, 1812 and three more children would follow; John Jr. in 1815, Henry in 1817 and Sophia in 1819. Of the four, only Sophia would outlive her parents.

All of the Thoreau children were intelligent and well educated, but other than Henry, the intellectual one seems to have been Helen. Thoreau scholar Walter Harding wrote that out of all of Henry's letters to his family, the ones to Helen "are more concerned with books and learning than those to other family members." Frank Sanborn, a friend of the Thoreau family, said that Helen was "earnest" and had a "lovable nature." Like her siblings, Helen attended Concord Academy (photo at bottom left) where she studied, among other subjects, Latin. Also like her siblings, Helen decided on a teaching career and had a job by the time she was seventeen years old.

Teacher Helen
By the mid-1830's Helen was teaching in Taunton, Massachusetts. Her brother John was also a schoolmaster and it was partly due to their income that the family could afford to send Henry to Harvard in 1833. Sanborn wrote that Helen "was an accomplished teacher," but by 1838, due to poor health, she returned to Concord. Soon after, she and her sister Sophia set up another school, this time in Roxbury.

When the children were younger, the Thoreau family was often in financial straits, but their money problems did not deter John and Cynthia from raising their children well. It has often been reported that Mrs. Thoreau's table "was always attractive and the food abundant and appetizing" (Harding, The Days of Henry Thoreau), and a well-known story says that Cynthia often did without tea, coffee, sugar and other luxuries in order to afford music lessons for her girls. Helen was known as a gifted pianist, and like her sister, she painted.

Sources The Days of Henry Thoreau by Walter Harding, 1970 Henry Thoreau by Franklin Sanborn, 1882 Correspondence of Henry David Thoreau, edited by Walter Harding and Carl Bode,1958 Thoreau: The Poet-Naturalist by Ellery Channing,1873 Thoreau Handbook by Walter Harding, 1959

By the 1830's the Thoreau financial troubles eased up a bit. Mr. Thoreau's pencil factory, Mrs. Thoreau's boarding house income and the children's teaching salaries all combined to let them live comfortably.

Helen and Sophia's boarding school in Roxbury closed after a short time, once again due to Helen's poor health. A "skin inflammation" had plagued her in Taunton, and in a letter to her doctor in February of 1838 she wrote, "I am very sorry to trouble you again so soon...the irruption [sic] on my head has increased and is accompanied by an excessive burning in my head, ears and face and [I] am obliged to keep myself uncomfortable cold..."

By the time she returned to Concord, Helen was probably in the beginning stages of the Thoreau family nemesis, tuberculosis. This did not keep her from seeking work. In the April 8, 1842 issue of the Concord Freeman, Helen advertised that she was soon to open a "private young ladies school" in Concord. Helen raised the money for this advertisement by entering a painting in the annual Agricultural Fair, as did Sophia, and they each won a prize of a dollar! Helen's school, the advertisement read, would focus on "needlework, painting and piano," all of which were Helen's specialties. The courses to be taught were:

• English branches with plain and ornamental needlework: $4.00/term
• Drawing and painting in watercolors: $2.00/term
• Music on pianoforte: $8.00/term

Students who were from out of town and needed to board in Concord could do so at the Thoreau house for $2.00 a week.

For some reason, the school never opened and by the next year Helen was writing to her brother Henry (then living on Staten Island with the William Emerson family) and asking him to look for a job for her. This, too, was an unsuccessful venture; Henry couldn't find himself a job, much less one for his sister! Helen then began to give private piano and painting lessons in the Thoreau home (the "Texas House" near the Concord train depot) and continued to do so until her health prevented her from continuing.

Sister Helen

The original Concord Academy building, now on Middle Street. Photo courtesy of the Concord Free Public Library's Special Collections

The Thoreau family was extremely close-knit. Except for brief excursions away from Concord, the four siblings lived at home with their parents all of their lives. Not one of the four Thoreau children ever married! The family themselves didn't seem particularly worried about this. In 1837, when Henry was deciding on a career, his mother suggested that he leave Concord to seek his fortune elsewhere. Henry burst into tears at the thought and it was Helen who put her arms around her brother, gave him a kiss and said, "No, Henry, you shall not go: you shall stay at home and live with us."

There are few extant letters remaining between Henry and Helen, yet the ones that do remain are warm and chatty. Some are almost scholarly. Henry wrote to Helen while she lived in Taunton, but he obviously did not write often enough for her liking. In one letter he opens, "Please you, let the defendant say a few words in defense of his long silence" and then goes into a long, transcendental rant defending why he hasn't written. "...letter writing too often degenerates into a communing of facts and not of truths" he rationalizes, "of other men's deeds and not our thoughts." That's why he hadn't written -- he didn't want to trivialize the process! "What are the convulsions of a planet", he continues, "compared with the emotions of the soul? Or the rising of a thousand suns, if that is not enlightened by a ray?" Of course, Henry never apologizes for not writing, so perhaps he had his sister convinced. All the same, he signs the letter, as he did all of his correspondence to Helen, "your affectionate brother".

In a letter written from Staten Island in 1843 Henry mentions to his mother that he is trying to find Helen a job; "Tell Helen that I do not see any advertisement for her -- and I am looking for myself... I might be tempted to try with her for a year untill I have payed [sic] my debts..." In the same letter Henry admonishes both Helen and Sophia to write to him, but ends the letter with a brotherly jab, "you must get Helen's eyes to read this -- though she is a scoffer at honest penmanship." It is not clear what Henry meant by this remark. Perhaps Helen had "scoffed" at or made some kind of a comment about his notoriously bad handwriting? Whatever Thoreau intended, the comment does show the obvious affection the siblings had for each other.

There is one letter from Henry to Helen that stands out from all of the rest, simply because the letter is in Latin! This gives us a good idea of Henry's knowledge as well as Helen's. Both were well-versed in classical languages. Addressed to "Ad Helenam L. Thoreau", the letter is full of newsy gossip. Henry asks Helen her opinion on a recent ship fire that had been in the news. He asks about family matters. He then goes on to question Helen "Quos libros Latinos legis? Legis, inquam, non studes. Beatus qui potest suos libellos tractare, et saepe per legeres, sine metu domini urgenteis!"

Loosely translated Henry is asking his sister, "What Latin are you reading? I mean reading and not studying. Blessed is the man who can have his library at hand and oft persue the books without a taskmaster at hand!"

It is evident that Helen, as well as Henry, had a love of reading and a love of learning, just for the sheer joy of it. It is no wonder that Sanborn would later write that Helen had a character "full of ability and promise." Intellectually, Helen could more than hold her own with her little brother Henry. And, like Henry, Helen's promise would be cut tragically short by tuberculosis.

NEXT: Helen Thoreau, Abolitionist.

©2001 Richard Smith
Photos: Courtesy of the Special Collections of the Concord Free Public Library
Backgrounds: Culprit Fey.

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